This Week in Anime

What the Hell is Happening in Darling in the FRANXX?

Steve
So Nick, what did you think of DARLING in the FRANXX's finale? Kind of a low note to end on, but I can respect that decision from a creative standpoint. And certainly some people will be frustrated at the lack of resolution for various plot points, but I'm just glad it's ove—oh excuse me a moment.

...well Nick I've been informed that there are still three episodes of FranXX left after all that.

I mean, I guess I'm curious in a morbid fashion as to how much worse the show can get, but that really shouldn't be my primary motivation to finish a story. Boy howdy, these past few episodes have been a trip. As in the script has tripped over itself more times than I care to count.

I try not to be performatively negative about stuff, and more often than not I'd rather focus on the good aspects of anime. I don't like being a bummer! FranXX is also hardly the worst anime I've seen, and it has some genuinely great moments, but it's also uniquely frustrating in its refusal to commit to anything with regards to plot, character, or theme. And this last-minute reveal of aliens as the Real Bad Guys is so emblematic of that problem.

It's difficult not to think of Gurren Lagann as the prime example of another anime that pulled off this shift. But with Gurren Lagann, the whole thematic crux of the show was that the scope of its conflict would constantly escalate, so the secret alien menace felt like the logical next step after peace on the earth had been achieved. In FranXX, it just HAPPENS with no fanfare. It should be a big moment, but instead it gets lost in the mess of a crowded story.

Also I think instrumentality happens in the background? Like over a minute of screentime? It's wild.

APE's backstory was already buck wild. A bunch of cosplaying weirdos showed up out of NOWHERE, and nobody seemed to mind that they ended up ruling the planet in less than half a century.

I guess to prime humanity for their eventual assimilation into VIRM? But this also brings up more of FranXX's muddled ideas, because the story posits that the gender binary and reproduction are A) intrinsic to human nature and B) need to be protected lest we lose our humanity. Not only are these things not true, they feed into super harmful narratives that are often used to oppress anyone who lives outside of these "norms".

Also most of the plot is just a result of one guy being too horny for a blue robo-dino girl.

God I got genuinely angry during this latest episode, and that hardly every happens when I'm watching anime. But for this show to go out of its way, unnecessarily, to show us how Dr. Franxx tortured and abused Zero Two when she was a child, and then depict him as a tragic figure fighting for the vestiges of humanity, and THEN have Zero Two THANK him right before he dies?

It's all fucking insulting.

Yeah, I agree that most of the show's faults come from a lack of vision more than anything else. But that still doesn't excuse the way it often runs parallel to harmful ideas about gender and sexuality. Any piece of media like this still bears responsibility for its messages, whether they were intentional or not. Bad writing isn't apolitical just because it's unfocused. This stuff matters, especially when it's contained in a big dumb action show that's supposed to appeal to everyone. Franxx doesn't commit to any of its messages, but being vague about them can be even worse.

Ikuno deserves so much better than this show. I mean, that goes for most of its characters, but Ikuno especially.

Along those same lines, comparing Ikuno's struggle of growing up repressing her feelings for other girls because she had no other choice to Ichigo's unrequited crush on Hiro is the fucking pits. It's NOT the same! I want to believe that this comes from a severely misguided attempt to express empathy, but it rings so hollow and dismissive. And all Ikuno gets is some tepid reassurance that she'll just have to give up when she's emotionally ready to, which plays into the narrative that homosexuality is a phase that people grow out of.

And all this plays out in one scene after 18 episodes of buildup. It sucks so bad.

Sorry, just threw up in my mouth a little.

It has been happening a lot lately because the attempts at sentimentality in FranXX's latter half have been far too treacly, with too much purple prose and too much distracting letterboxing to be anything but nauseating. Like, a lot of this excess I could forgive if the story was stronger, but the poor writing really does drag everything down with it.

Zero Two, once the best part of the show, got all of the edges sanded off her. Like, I'm glad she got to be happy, but it seemed to come at the cost of her entire personality. She may have turned Hiro into another oni, but Hiro turned her into another potato in turn.

I don't know why the show hates Futoshi so much, but it revels in torturing him at every possible moment.

At this point I'm expecting him to have to deliver Mitsuru and Kokoro's child some time in the next three episodes.

Hey, remember when we found out that Futoshi had an eating disorder? And then it got resolved in five minutes, and by resolved I mean it just never came up again? That's a super great way to address a serious psychological disorder!

That's ultimately the story of FranXX. An endless parade of serious issues reduced to window dressing for a bizarre and unfocused story about sex-powered robots.

It's just become a bad show at this point. I don't begrudge people for liking it, but I hope they're at least willing to think about the show's plot and themes instead of dismissing criticism out of hand. I don't want to be entirely negative though, so here are some things I DO like about FranXX.

1) Someone on the staff is mad horny for sharp teeth.

2) Ichigo's robot has robot hair under her robot hat!

3) Nah, that's about it.

Maybe, mercifully, the black border will encroach upon the whole screen and snuff the entire story out of existence.

We've already gotten close: